A Look Inside

Disclaimer: These pics aren't great so bear with me. It turns out James and I failed to get any good shots of the inside of our house before we started working on it. So these are the pics we took during our home inspection as we were walking through. Hopefully you get the idea of the space.

View standing at the front door looking towards the back of the house.

Many of the houses in our neighborhood are shotguns. Louisville actually has the largest number of shotgun homes in the country. New Orleans used to until Hurricane Katrina wiped so many out. We looked at a lot of shotgun-style homes and I really wasn't in love with the idea of owning one. They are linear in design with a narrow width (around 33 feet) and the rooms are connected so you walk through one to get to the other. The reality is James and I are not tidy enough to have guests walk through our bedroom to go to the kitchen or bathroom so we were really excited to find this place with the charm of a shotgun but a layout that made more sense for us.

Living room fireplace with original ceramic brick heater.

Our home is a bungalow and was built in 1914. It is just the right size for a first home. We have two bedrooms and one bathroom (We would have liked another. Hopefully someday!)

The layout is very square. The bedrooms run along one side of the house and the living space along the other with the kitchen in the rear. The front door opens to the living room with the dining room straight ahead.

Standing at the kitchen entrance looking back towards the front of the house. Love the leaded glass panes surrounding the front door!

Dining room fireplace. Neither fireplaces are functional.

Then the kitchen takes up the rear. To the right of the living and dining rooms lie the bedrooms with the bathroom sandwiched in between the two.

Front bedroom looking towards the front of the house.

Front bedroom looking towards the side of the house. That carpet has to go!

Each bedroom has two closets! Which means the bathroom is teeny tiny because all of the space is used up for bedroom closets. Hopefully we can rearrange the bathroom in the future. The bulge in the back right where the shower head comes out of the wall feels like it could be reduced to make some more room. I would love to put in a clawfoot tub.

The vanity makes my eyes hurt. It is so dated and unusually short so we are looking for second-hand replacement for now. I would love to put in something that looks more like it belongs in a 100-year-old house instead of something built in the seventies.

Standing in the front bedroom looking through the back bedroom to the kitchen.

Welcome to the seventies!

Our kitchen is quite large and laid out terribly. Note the awkward relationship between the fridge and the stove. James and I spend most of our time in the kitchen so there will be some serious reorganization of this space before it is functional for us.

The door on the left leads to the second bedroom and the dining room is on the right.

This pantry space is just off the kitchen on the right. This is the back side. The other side is just as deep. James and I hope to get a stacked washer and dryer to put in this space on the back side so we can use the other side for a pantry. We are thinking of adding some shelves along the wall to the right of the window so we can fill them up with jam :)

We think this must have been an addition to the house. The floor in this space sags a little and the ceilings are lower then in the rest of the house. The same with the kitchen. I assume the original house ended just past the second bedroom.

The door on the left leads back into the kitchen.

I really wanted a house with a porch. Front-porch sitting is a way of life in Louisville. We lucked out and got a front porch and a back deck (with a swing!), both perfect for sitting and watching the world go by.

Looking out at the orchard.

View towards the back yard and the garage.

When James and I first started looking for a house we made a list of our top features we wanted. This house hit them all but one. We didn't get two bathrooms. I'm sure it will be a little bit of a pain when we have guests visiting but  hopefully the addition of a fruit orchard and bee hives will tie us over until we can afford to expand the house.

We do have dreams of finishing the attic space. It would be great for another bedroom and additional bath. Wouldn't those chimney stacks look amazing in a bedroom?